Bitcoin Forum

In Greece there's a raging scandal of huge proportions with agricultural subsidies. For those that are unaware the European Union gives to member states large amounts of money every year to distribute to direct producers of agricultural goods. Either animal or plant based production, everything above a certain size can apply for subsidies.

The issue with Greece is that corruption in past governments allowed for people close to the government to pass fake statements through the system and receive disproportionate subsidies.

Now, the scandal was unveiled by a central European prosecution authority. And when questioned about their money some of those that were close to the government just said "I won the lottery several times".

This sparked a huge debate in Greece. Could state monopoly lottery results be faked? And if yes, what should be the ramifications? State lotteries are to many people the most trusted form of gambling still.

When it comes to corruption, you should expect the least and the worst.  This includes 'faking' a Lottery win as in simply making it seem like they won when there is no real proof that they did.  There are enough Politicians in my country who fake a lot of their past and history with 'provable' documents and it works until they are caught.

For the situation Greece is in currently, I presume we will have to wait for more information to come out.  Maybe their statement that they won the Lottery multiple times was a big lie.  Maybe they actually did win the Lottery and the results could have been faked very well.  Or.  Maybe they did 'win' but there is no real proof except a name appearing on the list of winners, which will I suppose put them in big trouble and will unveil a larger scheme.

Lottery can be rigged, it can be fake, it can be manipulated by insiders. It is even possible that someone that supposed to win the lottery would go and check if he won the lottery but they will tell him that he did not win it and the insiders would claim the money won. You know what people can do, some people can be very dubious.

It makes me wonder if these fools in the government really went so deep as to rig live televised lottery draws just to help their friends launder money. These games are already too profitable. State lotteries have an RTP of 60% or even 50%. They get to keep a huge portion of the millions and millions that passes through their system from gamblers. And yet they were so greedy over the already "free" and guaranteed profit.

In Greece the lottery monopoly was even privatised which raises even more questions. Why would the state sell a public corporation with guaranteed profits and how much of a real sale transaction would that be if even the private owners continue the same corruption.

I find it hard to believe they went to this extent to rig the Lottery.  If Greece did it and the scheme is unveiled, a lot of countries are going to seriously question the State Lottery of their own and would cause a giant scandal in multiple countries.  Not that it would be impossible but I doubt they are this smart to televise rigged picks every week.  I find it more plausible that they did this in a much more simplistic way.

The same scenario happens in our country. People wonder why bettors often win this time, which is very unusual compared to before. Many speculations arise about results manipulation, and it could be possible due to the number of winners every month.

When someone in power is greedy, it is easy for them to do so. They don't care about their reputation and credibility because what is important for them is money.

These corrupt officials found out that it was easy to launder money through gambling. It has now become a medium of big syndicates in most countries.

Well, the same thing might be happening here in the Philippines. Way back in 2022, 433 people won the national lottery. Someone in X (Twitter) even stated that the probability of having 433 winners was 1 out of 1 followed by 1,224 zeros.  :D
There was also an instance where the said agency posted an edited photo of the winner holding a check.
Another scandal was that a lotto player won 36 times in 2023.  ;D

Sources:
https://x.com/iamguidodavid/status/1576770835171274752
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63126558
https://www.rappler.com/business/cases-alleged-lotto-bettors-winning-multiple-times-explained-senate-hearing-march-2024/

It should not; the citizen is looking for the government to uphold high standards. The government cannot continue running a corrupt system; heads should roll if they are faking a state-run monopoly lottery.
Lotteries should be free from manipulation because sales and support depend on bettors' trust.

There should be an investigation to clean the ranks and files of those running the national lottery. We also have a state-run lottery, and our government is keeping it as transparent as possible because sales depend on bettors' trust.

To answer your question about faking the lottery results to funnel corruption, yes you can do it easily. There is a similar case like this in my country last year where the state lottery blatantly faking the winners and they do not even space it in between months, the announcement of the anonymous winners were spaced in a span of days in different cities and provinces, there was even an "official" photo of the anonymous winner but it was debunked to be a badly photoshopped image and so people got so mad that they have stopped using this method of stealing the money of the people of my country. It is a sad reality but people have forgotten about this issue given that there were more corruption issues popping up recently.

It looks like that kind of thing doesn’t happen in your country, but here, corruption is still everywhere, including in the lottery.

This edited photo will issue never die as it's obviously a fake winner. People will always remember it. Their corruption became so obvious that they actually thought no one would notice. They really thought people were stupid.

https://agbrief.com/news/philippines/22/01/2024/pcso-lottery-winner-photo-editing-incident/

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/12/06/UTwGIb.jpeg

People in the government are the most feared in my country because they can make things happen and also make things disappeared, I won't be surprised if these people have already found a way to prove that they really won the lottery, you think they won't expect such day to come? They must have asked themselves several times about what would happen if somehow things get out of hand, the most corrupted people on earth are in the government offices around the world

It turns out that thieving officials from different countries are completely inept at lying. :) When I read your post, I remembered that in my country, some officials are also very lucky at the lottery, as one of them "explained" his income by claiming he had won large sums in the lottery several times. Nothing can be done about it, as officials are very lucky at gambling. :)

Hasn't the story you described already answered your question?

In all fairness, there should be an investigation and punishment for those responsible according to the law, but in reality, we all know how devious officials can be. They'll blame the most insignificant figures in the story, while the "big fish" get away unscathed.

Now there is a reason for them to finally "see the light".

State lottery can be faked since it’s draw is via live and they can use different trick such as the weight of the ball for the winning number is much lighter compared to other balls.

Everything can be done behind the camera. In my country, there’s a scandal too about lottery when someone is winning everyday the jackpot prize while this is not happening in the past.

Our current government is corrupt to make this event possible so I believe this can happened too on your country.

Although I'm European this is the first news I have on this subject. Corruption among politicians is common news, but this "I won the lottery" argument seems too cheeky.

In the past, I heard stories about rich people buying winning lottery tickets with a premium for whatever reasons ::), even Laporta was once accused of having bought a winning lottery ticket and not having paid it. But when you have access to massive money you can't justify, even buying a great number of normal tickets can be profitable, and maybe this is what the protagonists of the OP's news did with public money.

Corruption is everywhere, even in minor institutions and business centers so definitely the government would be part of that as well. We have seen more corrupt practices than this in my country that it has become a norm and nothing can be done about it because they have the power and control and can manipulate any results right in from of our faces.

Faking a lottery winning should be a piece of cake for them as well, who knows maybe most of the winnings are fake as well. Or maybe there is no initial winner but just an unknown anonymous entity just to get people to buy more lottery tickets to generate revenue. It's really painful to see people we call our leaders act selfishly for their personal interest and do not have the people's interest at heart.

This is alarming; they are fooling their citizen if they are manipulating the results or the winners. How would they trust a government if there is a trust issue?
Corruption is everywhere, but it's different when it comes to the lottery, because many people put their hope in it. They are killing their hopes of winning if they can manipulate these numbers. If this happens to our country, which is a crazy country, there will be an uproar. I am a lottery bettor, and I cannot stand this kind of manipulation.

Corrupt individuals can do everything possible to cover up. They don't mind destroying the reputation of an establishment just to legitimise a fraudulent activity. These findings have destroyed the goodwill of the Greek lottery that took so many years to build. Many people might begin to avoid betting on the lottery since there is a general perception that results might be rigged. It's so disappointing that people in government defraud citizens they took an oath to protect.

Of course they can. Those who do that should be punished pretty hard, just to show everyone else that the game has to stay clean & fair.


https://en.parapolitika.gr/greece/107595/investigation-uncovers-thousands-of-lottery-winnings-in-greek-agricultural-subsidy-scandal/ (https://en.parapolitika.gr/greece/107595/investigation-uncovers-thousands-of-lottery-winnings-in-greek-agricultural-subsidy-scandal/)

Pretty interesting "scheme":



Somehow, I am not surprised... Using gambling is probably one of the oldest tricks to launder money. So I am sure this kind of "scheme" is working in many other countries too! These guys just got caught...

So the problem is with corruption, not with lotteries!
I could claim I have made 100 million dollars I received by betting on Max Verstappen losing the title this year, would that mean Formula 1 is to be prosecuted or something?


Think for a moment, if they :
- could fake the lottery wins, why would they need the bribes
- If they are already rich on bribes, why fake the lottery?


The problem with lottery ticket chances is that the distribution is not uniform it's a known fact that numbers of 1-12 get played more , same for numbers 1-30 as they are part of the date of birth people are used to gamble upon as their "numbers".
That ticket was a weird one, that's why the weird number of winners, same would happen if numbers in a sequence like 11,12,13,14 or something else will be picked, or stuff like 7,12,19,84 which can make somebody's birthday.

I believe it’s just the same effect if corruption is applied in any form including the lottery. There’s some worst corruption being applied than lottery like country healthcare, bank insurance and many more which is currently happening in the Philippines.

Corruption in lottery might be happening in the background for a long time since this game is centralized and can be manipulated by the head of the national lottery without getting bust.

We don’t know for sure but any centralized services is always prone to manipulation.

Stories about rich people buying winning tickets have existed for decades and in many countries it was rumored that someone who wins suddenly disappears from public eye and a wealthy person steps in with the ticket. these things sound like conspiracy but when you look at human nature and how power works it is not impossible. if you have access to large illegal money you need a clean explanation and a lottery win can instantly justify the source. that is why these accusations keep appearing.

In many cases the simplest explanation is that they used public money to buy huge amounts of tickets hoping for a statistical edge or buying winning tickets from others. when you control large funds the risk feels small because you are not losing your own money. this is why corruption becomes bold and stupid. the ramifications should be severe because manipulating lottery results hurts public trust and steals from citizens who believe the game is fair. Greece is not the only country with this problem but this case shows how deep the rot can go.

I am from Eastern Europe, and yes, I have also heard similar statements from local politicians. There are also those who declare cryptocurrency in their tax returns, and not small amounts, which in turn allows them to hide part of their illegal income. If necessary, they can always tell journalists that this is income from these funds and that it has nothing to do with corruption. I am sure that there are similar civil servants in many countries.

While we cannot rule out the possibility that it may occur in specific cases, it is highly unlikely that national lotteries in EU countries are rigged on a large scale. What does tend to happen is that corrupt politicians, like other types of criminals, buy winning tickets with dirty cash as others have commented as well. In other words, someone with a winning ticket worth €100,000 is given €120,000 in cash, and they can then launder that €100,000.

Incidentally, this subsidy business is typical of the socialist policy you like so much, which takes money from the private sector to distribute it to causes that politicians sell as good, and which in many cases end up like this. Another area of massive fraud is aid for cooperation and development.

It seems like the reason they gave for having money was based on winning the lottery, since that's what they stated during the investigation. However, it's quite obvious that it's not believable that the money came from lottery winnings.

What might happen next is that the lottery itself could be implicated or tarnished because of these alibis and statements they provided. It's hard to believe that someone could win the lottery
multiple times from their bets, right? And of course, no one can avoid thinking or having doubts about that.

One thing I've come to discover in my little time on this earth is that corruption has its hand on every aspect of our society no matter who is in charge.. most especially if it has to deal with the government... It could be that the lotteries are tampered with so that funds can be siphoned.. well I am not surprised though.. corruption has eaten deep into our government system around the world

People’s dreams of becoming millionaires have been taken from them. If the integrity of a state lottery is being questioned, public trust in the government naturally drops. This issue needs a thorough investigation, and the findings should be made fully transparent. Otherwise, both the lottery system and the credibility of state institutions will take a major hit.

Because of this, I remembered one of the most controversial, if not the most controversial winning lotto combinations in our country, which was 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, and had a total of 433 winners. We know winning the lotto is very hard, but to have such a number combination is unheard of, especially with 433 winners at that. Actually, although there are still a lot of lotto bettors here, I can’t deny that the number of people who don’t trust them is also increasing. Not to mention, corruption is deeply rooted in

Just to add to your story, in the Philippines last 2022, more than 400 people won the lottery in a single day¹. FOUR HUNDRED PEOPLE WON IN A SINGLE DAY and we all know that the chances of winning are astronomically low.

Now OP posits the question on whether the government has the power to rig the lottery system? The answer is an outstanding YES.

Anything that has something to do with the involvement of money, expect government agencies to at least be part of a conspiracy and corruption behind it. Given that they have the power to control the system, they can manipulate data and other information to make things genuine on the surface level.

---

1 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/06/asia/philippines-grand-lotto-jackpot-probe-intl-hnk

Seriously? 433 people won in a single lottery. That is too much. I also think that it is possible that some people are slot in to win it. We can see manipulation in sport and everywhere, so lottery will not be an exception.

This would have been better but there are many cases that if the system is corrupt, making investigation may be impossibly successful. I have not seen any lottery fraud before. To know the bad people may be difficult.

Does this really surprise anyone? If it has to do with money or power then there is a very good chance there is some sort of manipulation or corruption involved. None of them ever think they're gonna be caught either as they are the ones in power.

IMO if government officials are caught cheating the system, politicians caught taking bribes, or anyone in a position of power caught abusing the system then they should be marched outside and put in a firing squad immediately. Don't waste funds housing them in a prison, don't slep em on the wrist and discharge them from their positions, send a message. Stop the corruption.

As long as money is concerned, lotteries can be rigged immensely. Don't trust those in charge of the lottery, dont trust the company, and if you play a lottery, have a video proof to show that the game belongs to you. No monetary system where insiders stealing money will not be found, you have to be careful so they dont use you to achieve their own goals.

In my country too, I saw that bank account holders were forced to buy lottery tickets, and the most influential leaders of the government at the time were involved in this. And when the results of that lottery were out. The numbers that the leaders selected to win, as they wanted, were the winning numbers.

Because they used to corrupt that result, the entire result was rigged, manipulated. They systematically took millions of dollars from the citizens of the country. And since then, I have never bought this lottery, because the results of these lotteries are made according to their wishes.

So.. some individuals have been identified as applying for subsidies fraudulently and presumably there is a paper trail of evidence for that. When questioned, they claim that the lottery is the source of their wealth. You do understand that this is just a rather basic lie so they can pretend to have received their wealth from a different source? You're tarnishing the reputation of lotteries, which are not infallible but generally don't need to cheat players in order for them to be profitable for the companies behind it and the draws are usually quite transparent with checks in place to stop cheating. It sounds to me that you have been easily fooled by misdirection, because these fraudsters are simply making up an excuse for their riches that an average person can never disprove (that they won the lottery). It's really not complicated, but maybe you shouldn't spread their lies without proof?

Any lottery can be faked unless there is a mathematical means to objectively verify the randomness and transparency in the process. They can adjust the results using many methods and they have been caught doing this for a long time. Look up stories about state lotteries around the world and you will see. I generally don't recommend people to play the state lottery as there are simply too many scams going around in there. It is better to play with a trusted casino that has a clear house edge.

The thing is really what does a document actually prove if anything? Since with the right corruption you can get any kind of document. We are not talking about some low level forgeries, we are talking about the right authority issuing a real document for you even if you shouldn't get it. This can be anything from high school diploma to even birth certificates. This kind of faking is much harder to prove depending on the circumstances. It is not like someone is looking at all the birth certificates that are issues somewhere all the time and randomly saying that person seems like they were not not really born here.

People are easily distracted and forget these stories pretty fast. Don't think that a single scheme being unveiled would change the system.

Its also in USA there has been some corruption, it will happen both by players and possibly from within.  The point then is how its dealt with, is there an audit to try detect then remove this failure in the system and so on.
  Some places there is no correction and so people will observe easy money, accelerate and increase the losses from corruption till it becomes a joke.  Its a failure of government if they cant regulate income which benefits themselves and I would expect they are also losing money elsewhere similarly.

It will mostly be the close friends and maybe families of the people that hold the shots that will get the lotteries. They may even sell the slots. The same statement already said here that corruption has been deeply rooted in, that is exactly why I will never trust the lotteries especially since my country is highly corrupt.

There maybe may be some countries were this is still fair, but I think it will just be a few.

This seems like the number leaked and a lot of people just started sending the results to friends and family and the other people sent to their friends and family, like in gossip where you tell someone and then later everybody knows

In Brazil many times someone from Brasilia which is the capital city always wins a big prize and everybody knows there was some insider help because thats where the politicians and powerful corrupt people live. Someone there won many times in the lottory and became very rich but of course no one did anything because of corruption :(

I really can't get how people could do that. Honestly, I hate corruption because it is everywhere. This only proves how the system can be exploited by those who have political connections.

This is made even more painful when the money from the lottery is what is used as an excuse. Everybody knows very well how extremely difficult it is to win a lottery, maybe just once in a lifetime with that kind of luck. But ironically, this very rare occurrence is what is being used as a cover for acts of corruption.

In the end, stories like this hurt more than just faith in the government. They also break the public's trust in state games of lotteries even though these are the only type of betting that has long been seen as the "safest" and most open.

This is very possible in a state where the rate of corruption is high. It should not be shocking to find out that the organisers leaked this to their friends and families for selfish gains. If the system is not transparent, lotteries can easily be manipulated behind closed doors by those kept incharge

More like a money laundering but corruption is surely huge same here in our country, Corruption is a huge scandal especially on flood control projects where a lot of poticians are accused of corruption, probably billion of pesos worth of money, I think its around 200Billion worth, Worse thing is those who are accuse politicians are already confess and said that they were gambling using the peoples taxes or money, I think its around 200 million on just one politician and he was also seen in a lot of facebook post of gambling where mostly doing payout he said, a lot of photos onlines become trending of him winning a casino.

I guess if you just have a huge amount of money its kinda normal for this people to get involve in gambling because they just too greedy first in corruption and they wanted to double or multiple that money so they will put it again on gambling, one of the worst thing happening is most of the politicians accused are not in prison, there are already people that jailed but people that is just involved not the actual politicians that is accused.

Politicians and government officials can give any excuse about how to justify their loot, they are the same everywhere, they will steal and cover their tracks with the most ridiculous evidence. Using lottery wins to cover up loots is a new one for me and I won't be surprised if they get away with their crime because those that will prosecute them are mostly corrupt. I hope that lottery regulators will learn from this corrupt politicians to make big winners verifiable although it can be risky if the identity of genuine big winners can be traced. Before gambling regulations got serious there were a lot of money laundering going through gambling sites, hopefully a workable regulation will also happen in lottery to catch scammers.

The  problem I see here is that these people are very connected with the corrupt government that they were able to pass fake statement and received the subsidies. The influential people they have can still cover up any other shity crime they want to use to claim that this subsidy was money won from lotteries and the corrupt government officials can make the lottery company owners dance to their music as long as they will be rewarded and they will easily manipulate a winning ticket to cover up the crime. This is very possible.

Lottery corruption is not done by one person. Many powerful people in the state are involved behind it, as a result of which they easily draw their own numbers and there is no one to question them. This lottery corruption is still effective in countries where corruption is high. However, in my country, the number of corruption through lottery has decreased a lot, although compared to before.

If we're talking about Greece, then everything is possible. Suddenly, certain people who are close "friends" with politicians of a certain party currently governing, are claiming to have won the lottery multiple times. In a game that the chances of winning are so slim, that you're way more likely to be struck by a lighting, they're trying to pursuade me that they're legit. This isn't a coincidence, but organized crime and corruption, proving once again that the poor will always be poor and the rich will get richer.

The world is already full of corruption and I don't see this stoping any time soon because cheating is already part of the humans behavior and cannot be stopped if greed is not taken away from them. This might have been happening for many years before it gets unvieled and the public started knowing about it. Greed will not stop if the government will not start checking every aspect of sports and politics to eradicate these people that are always looking for a system to make money without feeling any guilty conscience.

I mean, if the government of one's country is so corrupt, then one should never consider to gamble in this national lottery to begin with. Lotteries being held by the government are supposed to be aimed to fund the government in a complementary way, but it can certainly be used by those in charge to justify their wealth and even launder money.

It would be better just to stick to private owned lotteries which have more to lose if they are found to be corrupt and unreliable.

Though, I must say it is quite troubling to see a member of the European union to have such high level of corruption, to the point politicians magically can get to win the lottery several times.

It goes to show what kind of government they have. This is why as we have observed, most corrupt countries are quite having their hurdles in advancing their nation. They are stuck so to speak. Because if they will show such unprofessional approach even in small things, then, a lot of problems are surely on the way for them to achieve progress in anything that they aimed at.

I am assuming a document actually can prove a lot.  Is this not what Lottery win claims are based on?  You are showing the proof of purchase of your ticket that has been registered under a time stamp.  I doubt you can easily tamper with these at all with out making it obvious.  This is why I say what happens next and what their findings are matter a lot.  Maybe it is nothing, maybe they tampered with evidence, who knows.

What are the odds of winning the lottery even twice in five years? In my opinion, it should be very low.
Therefore, someone claiming they won the lottery several times must be covering something. In short, that really looks like money laundering. When we talk about "several," we are not talking about winning it three times or less, since there is no set count or pattern to winning multiple times ;D (not talking about peanuts, though).

The citizen can demand that the lottery be shut down until the government conducts a transparent investigation. No use supporting a rigged lottery; the lottery is the government's cash cow, so it should be as transparent as possible.
It will just reflect the government's corruption if the head of the government is aware of it and ignores it; it will have negative repercussions on the election. Whoever is the sitting president, the opposition can use this issue.

This is not the first time I head of a Greece scandal involving EU money. At some point you really have to ask yourself if a country this corrupt should even be allowed to stay in the EU and enjoy all the benefits. At some point it's like milking a dead cow. Pointless.

Corruption in any shape or form should be punished severly.

Same goes for any national lottery corruption.

In the end, it is the people who suffer, not the politicians.

Corruption is a country's worse enemy. This is why some countries will never move forward unless drastic measures are taken against corruption. This starts with us as well, by not electing people and governments that are after our personal gain, by participating in politics (actually going to vote and not abstaining) and many other reasons I can't currently think of. Look at the corruption in third world countries and in the balkan countries (and many others as well). Imagine what lengths a government or state officials go through to rig the national lottery to satisfy certain people (their people).

Of course it would be possible to rig state lotteries if the lottery managers were corrupt. They could accept bribes from a corrupt individual, then create a lottery ticket with the winning number, hand the ticket to the corrupt person, and on the day of the draw, the lottery managers would be live on TV with a pre-manipulated machine.

This machine would generate numbers that should be random, making viewers think they are watching a demonstrably fair machine, when in fact it's all staged, and the corrupt person would be announced as the winner. It would be very difficult to prove that the winning person was in cahoots with the lottery managers.

I don't know what the situation is like in Europe, especially in the Greek country that you mentioned, just reading briefly about the cases that are being discussed, about corruption in any case it is a bad thing and this is a violation that can cause the people to suffer, aid to them is not delivered properly, and hearing that there is a possibility that the country's lottery is being faked because of a scandal, this could be a bad blow about the government system there, and people will no longer believe in it. whatever is issued by the country, including lotteries, because they have the potential to become easy places for corruption.

The manipulation of the lottery management is actually possible in case the administrator is having a bad mindset. The social confidence in the legitimacy of the lottery may be destroyed when a current system turns out to be manipulated with personal or group profits. Random manner of drawing can be easily influenced without being noticed and can create great losses to all the parties that are not colluding. As a society, we as an entity must ensure transparency in all drawing processes.

And how often does this happen? The first step to covering this up is to have a transparent investigation by somebody independent who is paid to deliver a nicer picture of the corruption than it is.. People believe this nonsense about independence, so it can be sold to them often it is all fake. Don't let them fool you. There have been cases of all kinds of government run lotteries being corrupt in the past, different countries and places. But these are often not the official big lottery or it is hidden from the public that there are links to government official. A simple I don't know who that person is even if they have been seen together last week stuff.  ;D Usually people of a country know these stories better, they are not reported into mainstream news.

Well let me tell you something nice, this is happening in every EU country on a massive scale with all kinds of subsidies. It is just well hidden as in the corruption is on a smarter method than in some countries like Ukraine and Russia. Getting caught is difficult and things are not put up into the public if they can be avoided. For subsidies you'd have someone from the politics do all your paperwork for a cash fee and that way you'd get a piece of the pie guaranteed, since a lot of applicants would fail due to the complexity of the requirements. The whole thing is done in a complex way on purpose. It is even worse with more liberal subsidies relating to culture or stuff like NGOs. So whenever you think that a specific EU country is too corrupt or some other country in the world is not as corrupt as the EU, think twice. The bigger the taxation the more money is being stolen, this is always the case. EU has the highest taxation rates overall.

The only way to deal with this kind of lottery corruption is for the government of the affected country to implement some strict measures that is aimed at strengthening and maintaining internal controls, give room for enhanced transparency and public scrutiny, whistleblowing and suspicious activities should be investigated, KYC requirements and other regulatory framework should be enacted so as to resolve the issues of national lottery corruption and significantly reduce it, thus this should enable trust and legitimacy of the lottery system in total.

If government is corrupt and they are the one manipulating it for sure that those things what you have said is hard to implement. Because those people provably don't want something that can stop their manipulation and corruption done in that institution.

So much better if they know that their national lotteries is rigged and full of corruption they better stay out betting on it and make that institution became unprofitable for corrupt officials.

I don't trust government operated lotteries that's why I don't bet on it and just go to crypto casino then have fun.

How can the government apply strict measures when they are involved? KYC will be less effective since it could be faked. Until bad eggs in government are reduced, other means to end this crime will not work. The solution will be to identify those government officials who are involved in this scam and prosecute them. If they are found guilty let them go to prison and pay back all they have fraudulently acquired from this scheme. This will serve as a deterrent for others.

The corruption may not just be from the government; it is also possible that there is corruption in individually owned national lotteries, which are something like a lottery for an entire country but not organized by the government. They could still manipulate the results in their own favor and give victory to whomever they see fit. 

Sometimes just enjoying your games as you gamble little by little is the best; the lottery mentality may not help.

So, I do not think there could be have a problem with lotteries, I do not think that it is fraud... I think they are just laundering money in another way, for example: buying already winning tickets for a value above your real prize, so they can transform dirty money into something legitimate that is declared as luck. Even European authorities have warned about the growing use of lottery and scratch off products for this type of scheme... it is a perfect and socially accepted alibi to justify money inflows.

But, obviously, I can not deny with 100% certainty that there are problems with lotteries there... any system controlled by people can be manipulated if there is not a strong, independent, and reliable audit. But, I think these corrupt politicians could use casinos to launder money or manipulate winnings much more easily... I do not believe they would resort to lottery fraud to achieve that.

Corruption problems are difficult to eradicate if the governments don't take them seriously. The corrupt officers can use the gap to their advantage and fake many things, including the state monopoly lottery. With their network, they can manipulate the works and also the results and they can also win the prize.

Not to mention if they want to launder their money using the lottery which may be difficult but it is for them as they know how it works. If the government can open the case and solve it, that will be a big catch for those corrupt officers but it takes courage to catch them.

They should be arrested and put in jail. They must not be given a chance to run away and their money should be taken as a warning. The government must investigate this case seriously to identify the corrupt officers.

Well, corruption and scams are everywhere now. So it cannot be ruled out that in this case, the lottery may be the same. If you think about it, the entire modern financial system is one big scam by moneylenders (commercial banks) and speculators (investment banks). If you think about it again and remember Marx, then in general the principle of classical capitalism, which consists of extracting surplus value, is theft.

So plundering government subsidies and the state budget in general is the primary task of people who have this opportunity. Actually, that's why they became officials. Moreover, this is typical for any country. And ordinary people (who for the most part are not scammers and thieves) are then surprised by the arrogance of corrupt officials.

If it is managed by the government, you cannot expect that it is completely clean especially when it is Greece where corruption cases are so high. Because a non-transparent administrative system is often a place for corrupt practices that are difficult to monitor. And it could be that as a result of this, state monopoly lottery results can be faked, this is all possible, because there is no mechanism strong enough to ensure authenticity and fairness in the management process. Even though it is still not completely certain whether it is truly fake, the possibility of manipulation in the system still exists.

Just to be fair, it's also like that in my country wherein corruption is like a norm for government officials as they can cook as well as who is going to win and what numbers are going to draw in a national lottery so that the winners are within the circles of this corrupt officials.

If not for them, then someone will have to front and then claim the winnings, worth of millions.

So I'm not surprised that there are countries that pulling this kind of stunt. Nevertheless, if there is a smoke, there will be fire and so this will be exposed sooner or later. And hopefully the hand of justice will prevail and put this individuals behind bar for good.

I've heard almost the same story, but here in our country. They also fake lottery winners just to take the money that was supposed to be for the real winner. The last time they posted a photo of the winner was with a government official or the one handling the national lottery, and it was proven to be a fake one.
Yet, no one was imprisoned for what happened, and they don't even know where the money is. Corruption is truly in every government in the entire world, and I don't think that will be erased easily.

From our country's perspective, the matter seems more familiar. Because here too, there are many such cases where subsidies, grants or project money do not go to the right people, and in the end, it is seen that people close to power have taken advantage. Which we can simply call corruption.

When I heard the excuse of the Greek lottery, I first thought that it was exactly the kind of strange explanation that no one believes but tells for the sake of telling, that is, to comfort the media. Winning the lottery repeatedly is almost impossible, and if someone uses it as a shield, that itself makes the suspicion even greater. If something like this happened in our country, people would first say that everything is a fixed game. Because there is already a lack of trust. So looking at the incident in Greece, it seems that wherever corruption is, the story is almost the same. Just change the name of the country.